Teenage dreams.

It doesn't feel real that last Friday night (insert Katy Perry pun here, if you will), I was in an arena watching Busted, and yes, the year is 2016. They were one of these bands I had always wanted back, and now they are, it still feels like I have dreamt the whole thing.

After a day roaming around Birmingham, we get to the Genting Arena, and let me tell you, it hasn't been a walk in the park. First, we thought the gig was at the Barclaycard Arena (Jesus, WHO picks arena names?), where someone who isn't Busted (namely American band James, that none of us had ever heard of) was playing. Then, we made it to the right venue, tried to stop at Wetherspoons for pitchers, and believe it or not... They didn't have pitchers. Or cocktails, for that matter. The outrage! We expressed our extreme discontent on the way to Las Iguanas, where, yes, they were selling pitchers... Only extortionate and tiny ones. The cheek of them! Beware, Birmingham Resort Centre or whatever it is you were, the strongly worded letters are coming.

Then, we made it inside the venue and took our seats... Seats that were, of course, also allocated to other people. You don't think it's possible until it actually happens to you. We had to sort it out with the box office (which meant crossing the entire solar system and back) and we ended up with better seats than those we had to start with. I am still a very confused human.

We only missed a tiny part of the first act, YouTube star and hopefully future pop star Emma Blackery. I have never been big on the YouTube scene, but I have loved Emma for a couple of years and in the summer of 2013, I used to spin her Distance EP about twenty times a day. Yup. A DAY. On this tour, Emma only has fifteen minutes to make a mark, which amounts to four songs, and she does the job very well. The songs are über-catchy and Emma's voice is strong and powerful in the arena. Opening a big show like this one is tricky and usually awkward, but Blackery pulls it off with talent (and the best sparkly jacket in the house) and hopefully, in the future, I'll get to see her at her own show. It'd be about time.

If I was in Wheatus, I would have one worry and one worry only : How the fuck do you do the whole being in a band thing when you're a one-hit wonder in the eyes of the world? Despite what we know of them (meaning Teenage Dirtbag), Wheatus are a solid band with a consequent back catalogue and enough talent to justify them still going after all these years. Though, considering the people in the Genting Arena are not their own fans, it feels like they're just filling time until they belt out Teenage Dirtbag... And even they know it. Frontman Brendan Brown introduces the songs as "the second track of our sixth album" and drummer Kevin Garcia even dons a "Teenage Dirtbag time" t-shirt. When it's time for the band's biggest hit, everyone gets up, the singalongs are deafening and I may have myself lost some of my vocal abilities in the process. Overall, I cannot deny it was a strong set, and maybe the reason Wheatus are still going is because they have figured out the whole "being in a band only known for their one hit" thing. If everyone's going to wait until you play Teenage Dirtbag, you might as well just give them a good time.

I am one of these people who found out about Busted AFTER Charlie Simpson (more widely known as the love of my life) betrayed an entire nation and destroyed the band. The year was 2007, it was night time and for a reason I cannot remember, YouTube lead me to the English trio. It has been eight years of hoping and waiting for them to come back - for some reason, I knew it was going to happen. I just knew.

I had seen McBusted two years ago, and the arena had been exploding with various props - a DeLorean, a giant flying saucer, inflatable boobs, Matt Willis in a wedding dress, you name it, they had it. I was expecting a full on arena show with all the props again, and weirdly enough, despite the immense (and slightly creepy) pig flying about and the cages on stage, despite the several thousand people in the venue, the show feels rather intimate. And I very much loved this ability they showed, how, as a successful band on their comeback tour, it seemed easy for them to make it look like there were only five hundred of us in the room, not sixteen thousand.

The setlist is obviously the greatest hits, and each single (Crashed the Wedding, What I Go to School For, Air Hostess, Thunderbirds Are Go (!!!)) provokes screams in the crowd. Considering the expectations around these shows, the fact that they haven't played as a band in over a decade and the crowd's intense reactions, every song feels like a single, and if you weren't acquainted with the outfit's discography, You Said No or Dawson's Geek could have been singles for all you knew.

We were also treated to three new songs, including opener and recent single Coming Home. The sound is more mature and only shows off the lovely harmonies these three voices can produce. The performance also includes a beautiful, even more intimate interlude on a smaller stage in the middle of the crowd, which sees the band playing hit Who's David?, the stunning acoustic version of Meet You There as well as a new track. The encore consisted of 3am and Busted's biggest single, Year 3000, and the evening is nothing short of a triumph for the boys.

On stage, Busted were energetic, James Bourne is posi jumping the whole time like he is in a goddamn pop punk band, and, most importantly, they looked happy to be here. Could Busted be the first boyband to make a REAL, successful comeback? The quality of the new songs and of their live performance seem to point in that direction.